Fitch named ‘Best Islamic Finance Rating Agency’ for third year

Wednesday, 26 June 2019 02:23 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Fitch Ratings has been recognised as the ‘Best Rating Agency for Islamic Finance’ for the third straight year by The Asset, a leading financial magazine in the Asia-Pacific.

Established in 1999 in Hong Kong, The Asset is a multi-media company whose publications, events and awards are widely followed by market participants in the Asia-Pacific. The awards are adjudicated by the publication’s Board of Editors and Benchmark Research team, who incorporate feedback from investors and issuers in the selection process.

Fitch is one of the first international credit rating agencies to have a regularly monitored methodology dedicated to rating sukuk and has provided independent and objective credit ratings to the Islamic Finance market for over a decade. It rates more Islamic banks than any other global credit rating agency; these rated banks have more than 130 outstanding Islamic Finance instruments with around USD100 billion of outstanding rated sukuk. Fitch also rates 36 Islamic Finance-based issuers worldwide (Islamic banks, takaual and sharia corporates). Fitch also has the largest market share of rupiah sukuk issuances in Indonesia. The agency rated several benchmark Islamic Finance transactions over the assessed period. This included the first green sukuk by Indonesia in February 2018. The $ 1.25 billion five-year tranche was part of a $ 3 billion issue listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Dubai.

The agency’s Global Head of Islamic Finance Bashar Al Natoor and the Islamic Finance Group coordinate all Islamic Finance activities and expertise across the Sovereign, Financial Institutions, Corporates, Structured Finance, Infrastructure, and Insurance teams worldwide. Fitch Ratings is active in the Middle East, having opened its regional hub in Dubai in 2006 and its office in Riyadh in October 2017.

For more news and analysis, please visit Fitch’s dedicated Islamic Finance website at:

https://www.fitchratings.com/site/islamicfinance.